Here I was, planning a post on how to keep your freezer organised…when the unexpected happened and we had to clean out our freezer. What happened? Let’s just say it was another thing to add to our list of comedies this year.
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I’d made a few small purchases recently, but I had been planning to take a little time off from putting meals together and instead eating the freezer meals we already had (most of them were delicious FreezEasy meals, you’ll remember our review). We had a lot going on, and plenty of food to keep us going for a while.
Phil had just purchased some boards to replace the soft ones in our attic and had been planning to spend the weekend on that project. I’d planned on spending some time writing blog posts and some virtual assistant work. But sometimes the powers that be have other plans.
That morning I went into the freezer for something and found that it didn’t feel too cold and the wraps at the top weren’t hard…the chicken was a bit soft…the ice cream was now a melting shake….not a good sign.
Our freezer wasn’t working. It was running, but not cooling.
So we salvaged about half of what was in our freezer and moved it to our fridge-freezer and borrowed space in a family member’s freezer as well. We ate pittas, wraps, and bread at every meal for a week in order to not have to throw it out. I hate to be wasteful.
But there was still a lot of waste….
What a week! Broken crockery, a cider crashed out of the fridge and 4 mops later and the floor is still sticky, and today our chest freezer has quit. We were able to salvage a few things into our fridge freezer and a family member’s. Dinner is a mix, and tomorrow and Tuesday’s meals are in the fridge. Unfortunately, much has to be binned ?? On a positive note, fortunately, it wasn’t after 2days of meal preps for the month. I knew I said this month we’ll eat what we have and not buy much other than fresh fruit & veg-but this isn’t what I had in mind for reducing our store! Well-it could have been worse. But it’s going to be a long week! Freezer shopping it will be for me- oh yes- also our vacuum and breadmaker have quit and can’t be repaired. #whataweek #readyfortheweeked #notsomethingelse #broken #fedup #kbnmoms #mkbkids #enoughalready #notlookingforwardtomonday #whatnext #notwhatihadplanned #readyforbed #hatewaste
From whole chickens to pork chops, salmon, pumpkin puree and apple sauce. It was awful. So much went into the food compost bin to be picked up by the council the next week. I almost cried.
On the positive side, it was only a week after payday and I hadn’t arranged for a grocery delivery so it wasn’t completely full (thanks to wanting to use what we had this month), and I hadn’t spent hours prepping freezer meals that would then have to meet the compost after only a few days. And we caught it before the whole lot became a swimming mess. So it could have been a lot worse!
Most people here shop on a weekly, and sometimes daily basis as the fridge and freezers are so small. So once we found out we were going to be parents, we purchased a chest freezer and I expanded my freezer meals from soup for work lunches to dinners as well. It’s so much easier to spend a day or two putting things together and then having something ready for dinner when time or energy is scarce.
We’re still eating our way through our supplies two weeks later; but we’re down to only a few meals so we’ll have to pick up what’s being held for us.
It takes a long time of budgeting, planning, and prepping to fill a freezer. But as we are aiming to eat healthier than we have been, this is a good way to start.
We’ll be able to take advantage of sales and have room to keep the purchases.
I always aim to try 12 new recipes a year. Last year I made about 30. With all the free freezer space, I’ll be able to go crazy with the easy and delicious MyFreezEasy meals. I can’t wait until my freezer looks like this again:
But first…I need to get a subscription to Which? Magazine and do some research so we can get a freezer that will be energy efficient and last. We’ll make good use of this site as over the past month about a dozen things have broken down. It’s almost comedic! One of my peaves is that although some of these items could be easily repaired; the parts are no longer manufactured and the stocks have been depleted.
So, stay tuned and once we have our new freezer and I begin to fill it, I’ll be sharing with you how I keep track of what we have in there!
Now I’m curious; how big is your freezer, and how often do you do your grocery shopping? If you have any favourite freezer meals, share them in the comments below as I’d love to try them!
